Mortal Engines (December 22, 2018)

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Without Olivia Cooke, there seems little to recommend Ouija: Origin Of Evil, although the backstory was one of the stronger elements of the 2014 original.

In 1965 Los Angeles, a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their séance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home. When the youngest daughter is overtaken by the merciless spirit, this small family confronts unthinkable fears to save her and send her possessor back to the other side.

He explained that it initially appeared in Villains & Vigilantes 2.1 (published by Monkey House Games in 2010, their update of the 1982 second edition rules).

It was then used to replace the original artwork (by someone else) that accompanied the Dragon magazine article when Monkey House was putting together its Maxima PDF.

As distribution of Dragon magazine was patchy at best over here in the UK during those pre-Internet dark ages, I never saw the July 1986 issue and so just presumed that the PDF artwork was the same as that of the published article.

A week-and-a-half into the Kickstarter and the campaign is going strong. Having hit its initial funding target, three stretch goals have subsequently been unlocked and a fourth is in sight at $28,000.

This will mean everyone who pledges at least $15 to the campaign will get a free PDF of Situation Room, a new 36-page introductory adventure for Mighty Protectors, written by the game's other co-creator Jack Herman and illustrated by Jeff.

A softcover of the adventure will also be available as an $8 add-on.

When the Mighty Protectors are called off-world for an interstellar emergency, their worst enemies - The Unhuman League - launch a blood curdling operation to take over America. Can you and your teammates stop them?

Part one of the Marvel’s Luke Cage Street Level Hero social video series explores the music that moves the show. These digital videos look to blend fiction with history by taking audiences behind the curtain on the themes that give the show it’s street-level authenticity and cultural relevance. Executive producer Cheo Hodari Coker , Mike Colter, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge of A Tribe Called Quest, A$AP Ferg and Method Man lend their commentary on how each episode is shaped by its score and musical influence.

In this Marvel live action series, a street-fighting ex-con battles crime on the streets of New York as the super hero, Luke Cage.

In case you missed it in the last couple of weeks, a potentially-habitable Earth-sized world has been found orbiting around Proxima Centauri, a mere 4.23 light years away (or 40 trillion km).

Sure, that's several thousand years away travelling with current technology, but hopefully this will spur both government and private space initiatives to press on with developing the next generation of propulsion systems.

All of the planets listed at Futurism have the potential for adding a touch of 'realism' to the homeworlds of any alien races your player-characters meet, be that in pure sci-fi adventures, superhero games, or just unexpected alien invasions of Earth.

As she's now listed officially as a member of The Mighty Protectors, it will be interesting to see how she translates into the new rules system of the forthcoming Third Edition of Villains & Vigilantes.

Unlike the Dr Killjoy & Spoilsport piece, I haven't yet got round to framing the Maxima art, as it's not a standard size.

However, as Rachel and I are intending to clear up my gamesroom this autumn, ahead of 50th birthday, I'm hoping I'll finally get round to displaying it as it deserves.

Miss Out Of This World 1960, At The Flying Saucers Convention, Los Angeles

Forget Miss World, she's Miss "Out Of This World"!

Goodstuff's Cyber World has published a fascinating portfolio of niche pageant winner photographs... from Miss Slade Rule, 1958, to Miss Magic Marker, of 1954, and on to Miss Pussycat, 1965 (minds out of gutter, please).

If there's time travel in your campaign, then surely one of these 'nerdy' pageant winners can pop up as an NPC somewhere, striving to destroy stereotypes while reinforcing the message of "good posture", "the correct use of T-squares", the joy of "atomic energy" etc

Monday, 29 August 2016

August Bank Holiday Monday means a trip to Military Odyssey in Detling for the Family Knight... complete with a rental mobility scooter to help me stay active for longer (and Alice loves travelling in my lap as well, although that's not really what it was designed for).

Military Odyssey is a three-day event, celebrating living history and military re-enactment from Ancient History right through to the modern day - with the usual predominance of Second World War groups.

As ever with these affairs, the variety of stalls are often just as entertaining as the displays (what sort of household would proudly display mugs with Hitler's face or swastikas on? Not the sort of thing you'd break out for granny when she pops round for afternoon tea!)

One of the highlights of the day though was when Rachel got "kidnapped" by a pirate and locked in the pillory so I could take embarrassing photos that would then end up on Facebook and here!

As Rachel was gamely playing along, I think the pirate and his mate would have quite happily left her shackled up while I went off and did a bit more perusing, but somehow it didn't feel right.

The pirates, authentically smelling of booze, were great chaps, clearly enjoying themselves (as you can probably tell from the photo above).

In fact, everyone we spoke to was entertaining and often educational. We had discussions with re-enactors about Western frontier living, Medieval Japanese food, film costuming, life on the Home Front (always a favourite of Rachel's with her penchant for vintage fashions) etc

And, as ever, Alice was a great ice-breaker, enjoying the variety of costumed laps she could jump into and different doggies she could play around with (as quite a number of the displays had resident canines as well).

Another surprising highlight came when a 60-plus pony express rider in the Wild West encampment saw my T-shirt and, without any prompting, recited the Green Lantern oath. I certainly wasn't expecting that!

This now means that everyone who pledges at least $55 to the campaign receives a PDF of War Heroes, a new 300-plus page World War II sourcebook for Mighty Protectors and 2.1, written by Brian Adams, illustrated by Scott Sackett.

The supplement contains 70 characters, period vehicles and equipment, maps, a timeline, and optional rules for an ultra-low-powered commandos campaign.

This has also unlocked a softcover print version of War Heroes as a $32 add-on.

And, as a bonus, everyone who pledges at least $30 to the Kickstarter receives a PDF set of Mighty Protectors character sheets for all 18 characters from the legendary V&V starter adventure Crisis at Crusader Citadel.

Next up is the $28,000 stretch goal, which unlocks Situation Room, a new 36-page introductory adventure for Mighty Protectors, by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee.

This November 16 (make a note of the date on your calendar), Riverdale's other well-known redhead (and a favourite of +Timothy Brannan), Cheryl Blossom, finally makes an appearance in issue 14 of Mark Waid's new Archie comic. With art by Morning Glories' Joe Eisma.

Once, Veronica Lodge was the Princess of Riverdale, flowers strewn at her feet everywhere she walked. Now she’s a just regular student at a private school full of Mean Girls who’ve made her their Betty, led by their Queen Bee, the alluring and diabolical Cheryl Blossom.

Check out the variant covers, by Derek Charm and Alitha Martinez, in this article.

Special note on 'point 55', about Archie-themed podcasts: it references HeroPress favourite The Riverdale Podcast (which, sadly, is coming to an end this weekend, on September 3, after four-and-a-half-years of regular weekly episodes).

There are few sights as evocative for gamers as an abandoned ruin, but then to put it on a island is just the cherry on the cake.

Those incredible people at Atlas Obscura have compiled a list of "Incredible Ruins Of 12 Abandoned Island" that are guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing, especially if you're thinking about locales for contemporary horror tales, ghost stories, contained zombie infestations, or such like.